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Original WWII office artifacts — the actual working file folders of the Navy Purchasing Office, New York, sold as one lot of seven folders plus a copy of Lt. Taylor\'s transfer orders. These are not reproductions and not loose paperwork: they are the folders the office\'s own staff carried its requisitions, offers, and contracts around in, with each division\'s organization chart or flow-of-work chart pasted inside as the desk reference for routing the work. The photos are in the same order as this description.
WHERE THEY COME FROM: The Navy Purchasing Office, Federal Office Building, 90 Church Street, New York, N.Y. — the Navy\'s great wartime buying office, commanded by Captain Henry de F. Mel, Captain (SC) USN, Officer in Charge. Each folder is made from the office\'s own printed requisition form stock (form NRB-33987, printed 10-23-42, headered \"Requisition No. / Yard / Bureau / Series\") folded into a file folder, with its chart pasted inside the front cover and held by the original office tape, still in place.
PHOTO 1 — The complete lot: all seven folders together.
PHOTOS 2 AND 3 — The copy of Lt. Taylor\'s transfer orders (complete, both pages). Bureau of Naval Personnel orders Pers-318-LFF, May 12, 1943, from the Chief of Naval Personnel, Randall Jacobs: Lieutenant (jg) William A. Taylor, SC-V(S), USNR, is detached from duty as assistant to the Officer in Charge, Navy Purchasing Office, New York, and ordered to Chicago, Illinois, to report to the Officer in Charge of the new Navy Purchasing Office there as his assistant, authorized to delay reporting until May 24, the delay to count as leave. The 1st Endorsement (Commandant, Third Naval District, May 13, 1943) forwards the orders. The 2nd Endorsement, signed in type HENRY de F. MEL, reads: \"Detached as of this date, 18 May 1943.\" The Third Endorsement (Officer in Charge, Chicago) records \"Reported,\" signed Ralph C. Walter, Lieut. (SC), USNR, by direction — and below it, Taylor\'s own travel record: left New York City May 21, 1943, 2230; arrived Chicago, Illinois, May 24, 1943, 1000; \"No Government transportation was furnished. It was necessary to travel at own expense.\" A COPY, included because the folders below are the New York office these orders took him out of.
PHOTO 4 — The instructions folder: the office\'s printed instruction sheet inside — \"Instructions to (SP / SD / NEG),\" with the notation, CMP symbol, priority AA-1 / AA-2X / AA-3, delivery F.O.B. plant, inspection at plant, packing export, and the full Controlled Material Information block (allotment number, CMP code, quantity in net tons and pounds, F.O.B. destination, after delivery, domestic / air). This is the checklist the clerks worked against before a requisition left the office.
PHOTO 5 — The \"Office Set-Up\" folder, chart dated 1 January 1943: the whole Navy Purchasing Office, New York, on one sheet. Officer in Charge Mel, Henry de F., Captain (SC) USN; Administrative Assistant F. W. Patterson, CAF-11, $3800; Assistant W. I. Flynn, CAF-7, $2600; and the Officer Assistants — Smith, M. M., Captain (SC) USN; Landau, W. M., Lt. Comdr. (SC) USNR; Ehrman, F. L., Lt. Comdr. (SC) USNR; James, W. G., Lieut. (SC) USNR; Taylor, W. A., Lt. (jg) (SC) USNR; Wilson, K. R., Lt. (jg) (SC) USNR; Caulfield, J. D., Lt. (jg) (SC) USNR; Gilbert, H. B., Lt. (jg) (SC) USNR; Salant, R. S., Ensign (SC) USNR — above the Administrative, Schedule, Special Purchase, Award, Contract, Adjustment, and Negotiation Divisions, every section and
